Arpadere is a village in the Hamamözü district of Amasya Province, and it appears in the records under three different names: Arpadere in the population results, Arpaderesi in the municipality's list of muhtars, and Arapdere in the cultural inventory entry for its mosque. According to the location data in that inventory, the village lies some six kilometres north of the district town. That it was once one of the district's larger villages can be inferred from its being one of only three villages in Hamamözü with a telephone exchange of their own; today its population has fallen below one hundred. In 2007, 405 people were registered in the village; in 2025 there were 94. Amasya has another village with a similar name: Arpaderesi in the district of Taşova should not be confused with this one.

The Name and Its Traces in the Records

In the table in which Bekir Başalan lists the renamed settlements of Amasya, the only entries for Hamamözü are Damladere, Dumanlı, Kağnıcı and Kızılcaören; Arpadere is not among them, so its name has not undergone an official change. The origin of the difference between the forms Arpadere, Arpaderesi and Arapdere has not been explained, and no document has been found showing which of them is older. The village's name does not appear in Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's description of the nahiye of Hamamözü, and no trace of it has been found in any Ottoman-period record. According to the district's official descriptions, the people of Hamamözü's villages are mostly descended from those who migrated, chiefly from Gümüşhane, during the war of 1877-1878; but since the statement does not distinguish between villages, it says nothing certain about how Arpadere was founded.

Buildings and Quarters of the Village

The village mosque is registered in the cultural inventory as "Arapdere Köyü Camii" (Arapdere Village Mosque), with its status given as accessible; the entry contains no information on the building's date, founder or architecture. The governorship's description of the district records that Arpadere had a telephone exchange with a capacity of 400 lines; the other villages with exchanges outside the district town were Gölköy, with 500 lines, and Yukarıovacık, with 254. The text is undated, so it cannot be said with certainty in which years the village needed an exchange of this size. That the village is made up of more than one part is clear from the existence of a section called Kötüköy Mahallesi (Kötüköy Quarter). In June 2026 a fire broke out in a house in this quarter and was put out by the municipal fire brigade, causing only material damage. In the municipality's list the village's muhtar (village headman) is Ferhat Arslan.

Population

Since 2007 the population of Arpadere has fallen to less than a quarter of its former size. The decline is steep in the early years: from 405 in 2007 the figure drops to 301 in 2012 and 214 in 2018. It then fluctuates for a few years between 136 and 184, and falls from 158 in 2024 to 94 in 2025, a loss of more than forty per cent in a single year. In 2025, 44 men and 50 women were registered in the village.

  • 2007: 405; 2008: 385; 2009: 357; 2010: 331; 2011: 308
  • 2012: 301; 2013: 274; 2014: 256; 2015: 247; 2016: 217
  • 2017: 221; 2018: 214; 2019: 184; 2020: 174; 2021: 136
  • 2022: 161; 2023: 177; 2024: 158; 2025: 94

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Official sources

Other sources

Online sources